Ruby and her little quadruplet calves
A sensational birth with a happy ending
The story of Ruby, the dairy cow, and her four little offspring is something very special.
The chance of a cow giving birth to healthy quadruplets is 1 in 11 million. So when Ruby, a dairy cow from Styria, gave birth to four beautiful cow calves, it was a sensation! The surprised farmer's family gave the calves pretty names: Reserl, Roserl, Renaterl and Roswitherl. Unfortunately, the four of them are a bit small and thus not suitable for breeding. The family therefore pulled out all the stops to find a good place for their charges. We were asked to take in the cow family and so our animal rescuers travelled to Styria.
The trip led to Gut Aiderbichl Henndorf
It was important to Dieter Ehrengruber to also be able to take in mother cow Ruby in order to keep the animal family together. Nature would never separate mother animals from their young. No matter what kind of animal - foals, puppies or calves - Gut Aiderbichl always tries to get the mother animals as well. It was a nice gesture by the farmer to hand over Ruby together with her calves.
The animal keepers have their hands full
At first, we noticed that Ruby was a little too strict with her calves, because she had not yet learned the caring way of dealing with her children on the home dairy farm. We slowly got the family used to each other and it soon worked very well. Renaterl and Roswitherl, the two smaller calves, learned how to drink milk from mom Ruby's udder thanks to the help of our keepers. Ruby has also become comfortable with this daily routine. The two larger calves, Reserl and Roserl, preferred to drink milk that had already been milked from the beginning. They get it in "their" green bucket, where they suck greedily at an attached teat. So feeding already works very well and also peace and harmony has come into this special family.
The Aiderbichl pastures are the new playground for Ruby and her girls
What could be more peaceful than watching a herd of cows graze? The cows have no stress, plenty of space to run around and enough fresh grass and hay to eat. In between, they head for their mum's udder or the green bucket. They love both the sun and the shade - there is plenty of both here. The most beautiful picture is when Ruby and her four girls are snuggled close together on the straw, relaxing or sleeping. Sometimes a little calf sticks its head through the fence and wants to stroke the hands of visitors: the tongue is soft and warm and the little ones then lick with pleasure the human hands that carefully reach out to them.
The horns may grow
Ruby herself has no horns. Roserl, Reserl, Roswitherl and Renaterl already have horns under their fluffy fur. Many people are afraid of the horns of cattle. They are usually removed from animals in stalls so as not to injure the animals standing close together and also to exclude any danger to humans. Cattle communicate via their horns, they use them for orientation. The horns are strongly supplied with blood up to the middle and this in turn is important for the heat regulation in the body of the cattle. Important hormones are produced in the horns and even for the formation of gas during digestion, the horns are of great importance.
So we wish Ruby and her quadruplets a happy, content and long life at Gut Aiderbichl. All five are looking forward to your visit.
